By JEFF SHESOL

Published: June 28, 2011

Washington

ARE there really only nine Supreme Court justices?

It seems that everywhere you look, you see one popping up: giving speeches, signing books, leading workshops, posing for pictures at charity functions. This is what law professors call “extrajudicial activity,” and we have seen a spate of it lately, not only during the court’s summer recesses, when justices fly the marble coop, but throughout the term that began last October and ended this week.

“Extrajudicial” is a term that covers most of what judges do when they are not judging. Of course, in the public sphere, there is really no such thing as purely extrajudicial activity for a Supreme Court justice, any more than there is extrapresidential activity for Barack Obama. Virtually everything the nine do and say — whether in robes, suits or leisure wear — has potential bearing on the reputation of the court.